http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/television Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:38:15 -0400 Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:38:15 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1943/lesbianing-together-images-of-incarcerated-women-in-orange-is-the-new-black By Anna Curtis - Using content analysis, this article focuses on the portrayal of female prisoners in the first two seasons of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black (OITNB). There are two main findings. First, the word "lesbian" frequently signals homophobia rather than a self-claimed sexual identity. That is, the word "lesbian" primarily appears in scenes that highlight various characters' homophobia. Throughout the first and second seasons of the show, the scriptwriters show no mercy to homophobic characters, a characteristic of the show that differentiates it from earlier women-in-prison novels and... Fri, 11 Mar 2022 02:07 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1943/lesbianing-together-images-of-incarcerated-women-in-orange-is-the-new-black http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1938/gothic-romance-in-the-haunting-of-bly-manor-the-modern-transformation-of-the-victorian-gothic By Lotte De Boer - This article explores the expression of the Gothic romance genre in the 21st century, by examining Mike Flannagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. Very little literature focuses on contemporary expressions of this genre. The Gothic reflects the social, cultural, and political anxieties of society, and these naturally differ between works depending on the time they were written. Due to emancipation, the conventional central problem of the Gothic Romance – love as the main obstacle – is no longer feasible in our contemporary society. Furthermore, many of the repressed themes often... Fri, 11 Feb 2022 09:20 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1938/gothic-romance-in-the-haunting-of-bly-manor-the-modern-transformation-of-the-victorian-gothic http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1885/the-modern-american-family-in-amcs-the-walking-dead By Kasandra J. DiSessa - AMC's The Walking Dead (TWD) has maintained a dedicated viewership since its premiere in 2010 and serves as a well-known example of zombie media in today’s culture. The zombie genre has long been recognized for its subversive potential, but is often critiqued for failing to subvert certain institutions, such as the heterosexual, nuclear family. TWD has been critiqued in previous scholarship for sharing this failure. However, analysis of more recent seasons of TWD shows that the show has steadily increased its representation of different family types, and this increase of non-heterosexual... Wed, 10 Mar 2021 08:13 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1885/the-modern-american-family-in-amcs-the-walking-dead http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1771/hyperreality-and-the-consumption-of-the-subject-as-object-in-black-mirror By Megan Kirkwood - Jean Baudrillard’s essay ‘The Precession of Simulacra’ from Simulacra and Simulation (1981) is a key postmodern text to understanding the contemporary technological Western world. ‘The Precession of Simulacra’ explores Baudrillard’s central concepts of simulacra, simulation and hyperreality. Baudrillard argues that we now live in a world of signs, that ‘just about everything is a matter of signification, […] obviously connected with an explosive growth in media, but related also to changes in the conduct of everyday life’.[1] In ‘The... Wed, 09 Oct 2019 08:45 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1771/hyperreality-and-the-consumption-of-the-subject-as-object-in-black-mirror http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1506/preserving-cantonese-television-and-film-in-guangdong-language-as-cultural-heritage-in-south-chinas-bidialectal-landscape By Rona Y. Ji - The sheer number of distinct dialects present within the country has long complicated Chinese language standardization and language policy. Furthermore, China’s history with colonial powers throughout the past three centuries has led to a distinct divide between language standardization in Northern China and Southern China. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to promote Mandarin as the primary language of the People’s Republic of China, Cantonese has been one of several dialects that has experienced special allowances from the Chinese government due to the colonial... Mon, 12 Dec 2016 06:20 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1506/preserving-cantonese-television-and-film-in-guangdong-language-as-cultural-heritage-in-south-chinas-bidialectal-landscape http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1471/motives-for-engaging-with-the-kardashian-reality-television-family By Kayla Hammer - Reality television has been around for more than a half-century, dating back to the hidden cameras in Candid Camera in 1948. Today, one of the most popular reality television shows is Keeping Up with the Kardashians, an inside look at a celebrity family based in Los Angeles. This study explored why college-aged women feel a personal connection to the show and why they've been following the family for nearly a decade. Based on six interviews conducted with interested viewers, the study found that these women watch the series to escape reality, participate in surveillance, and feel personal connectedness... Tue, 31 May 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1471/motives-for-engaging-with-the-kardashian-reality-television-family http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1476/examining-preadolescent-television-programming-and-the-rise-of-generation-me By Johanna Rosen - The results showed that the top five values in the most popular preadolescent shows from 2007 were fame, achievement, popularity, image, and financial success. In contrast, the top five values in 1997 were community feeling, benevolence, image, tradition, and self-acceptance (Uhls & Greenfield, 2011a). The value of fame rose from the 15th spot in 1997, to the first spot by 2007, while the importance of valuing community feeling and benevolence dropped to the bottom of the list by 2007 (Uhls & Greenfield, 2011a). Greenfield expresses his concern with these results: "When being famous and... Tue, 31 May 2016 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1476/examining-preadolescent-television-programming-and-the-rise-of-generation-me http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1361/do-african-american-female-stereotypes-still-exist-in-television-a-descriptive-character-analysis-of-olivia-pope By Kendall King. - Pope was chosen for this study because she is leading the "progressive shift in the representation of Black female characters in mainstream television" (Mask, 2015, p. 8). Unlike most African-American women seen today on television, the character played by Washington is both dark-skinned and beautiful, while also romantically and sexually desirable (Everett, 2015, p. 37). Pope differs from other strong African-American television characters, such as Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show, who portrayed another prominent African-American television character, and was a lawyer, a mother, and was equated... Wed, 18 Nov 2015 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1361/do-african-american-female-stereotypes-still-exist-in-television-a-descriptive-character-analysis-of-olivia-pope http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1181/al-jazeera-america-and-strategic-responses-to-the-perception-problem By Audrey Carson - Conservative pundits, like Glenn Beck of Fox News fame, immediately meted out blistering condemnations of the channel, going so far – in Beck’s case – as to describe Al Jazeera as “interested in the promotion and protection of Sharia law” and “as close to being an enemy of the state as any media can get” [2]. Despite radical right reports to the contrary, Al Jazeera America is not a Muslim media source, nor does it produce any content that suggests it “speaks” for Islam. Since its inception, the channel has largely succeeded in establishing... Wed, 15 Apr 2015 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1181/al-jazeera-america-and-strategic-responses-to-the-perception-problem http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1014/international-travel-nation-branding-and-orientalism-conflicting-portrayals-of-americanism-in-the-amazing-race By Elizabeth A. Montroy - Beyond merely claiming to represent 'reality,' reality television shows also inherently operate as “powerful ideological source[s] containing multiple sites of meaning... that help viewers to make sense of their social, political, economic and cultural worlds” (Winslow, 2010, p. 268). One of the ways this is done is by “taking people out of their own environment and placing them in one which is organised around values different from those they have previously expressed” (Lyle, 2008, p. 319). This is effectively demonstrated in The Amazing Race (CBS, 2001-present), which... Tue, 17 Mar 2015 04:49 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1014/international-travel-nation-branding-and-orientalism-conflicting-portrayals-of-americanism-in-the-amazing-race http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/969/revolutionizing-the-newsroom-how-online-and-mobile-technologies-have-changed-broadcast-journalism By Nicole Chadwick - This study interviewed journalists across the United States in 2013 to find out how online and mobile technologies have changed television journalism in the past decade and what new technologies and trends they expect in the future. Interviews with thirteen television journalists indicate that web presence and mobile apps are getting more important in most cases; the use of others’ digital assets for both television broadcast and the web; use of the Internet and social networking to generate better stories; and an effort to reach out to younger audience. The results of this study also imply... Thu, 29 May 2014 06:36 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/969/revolutionizing-the-newsroom-how-online-and-mobile-technologies-have-changed-broadcast-journalism http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/836/anime-from-cult-following-to-pop-culture-phenomenon By Samantha Nicole Inëz Chambers - This study examined the scope of influence that Japanese anime had on American people born in the '80s and '90s. Relying on secondary research and a survey using a convenience sample of 107 students and young adults, this study found that anime conveys a negative image associated with violence and fringe culture, but people see anime as more of an art form than tasteless violent film. The study also found that piracy, though not overly common, was still practiced in the case of Japanese media, but some major studios are not impeding these fansubbing (fan-made subtitles) movements. They believe... Sat, 14 Dec 2013 11:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/836/anime-from-cult-following-to-pop-culture-phenomenon http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/824/the-construction-of-southern-identity-through-reality-tv-a-content-analysis-of-here-comes-honey-boo-boo-duck-dynasty-and-buckwild By Ariel Miller - The reality television genre has been increasingly at the forefront of media and cultural studies and a subject of critique across the disciplines of communications, anthropology and visual studies. While reality television programs have been analyzed for elements of racism and sexism, quantitative research to date has rarely been done to explore whether the portrayal of the American southerner was distorted. Using a data-driven approach, the frequency of commonly held southern stereotypes within three shows across three networks were evaluated through content analysis. The researcher observed... Mon, 09 Dec 2013 01:01 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/824/the-construction-of-southern-identity-through-reality-tv-a-content-analysis-of-here-comes-honey-boo-boo-duck-dynasty-and-buckwild http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/796/falsifying-the-existence-of-women-exploring-marxian-and-gender-theories-in-mad-men-to-examine-roles-of-consciousness-in-the-gender-dynamics-of-the-workplace By Oluwatosin Shenbanjo - One may contend that attaining unadulterated awareness of one’s existence is, in present society, idealistic. Specifically, such achievement is unlikely if, in the midst of oppressive forces, one rests in a state of what sociologists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels deem “false consciousness.” Defined as a detrimental condition in which members of the proletariat – the oppressed, working class – misunderstand “their real situation in society,” false consciousness nurtures an inverted sense of existence for members of the working class who are dominated by... Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:49 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/796/falsifying-the-existence-of-women-exploring-marxian-and-gender-theories-in-mad-men-to-examine-roles-of-consciousness-in-the-gender-dynamics-of-the-workplace http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/794/the-portrayal-of-the-american-legal-system-in-prime-time-television-crime-dramas By Samantha Parker - This is a case study looking at how the legal system is portrayed on prime time network television crime dramas in respect to suspect treatment, the case building process and trial length. Through content analysis, it compared the exaggerations presented in those dramas to real-life accuracies. The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, Fairly Legal and Major Crimes were selected to study, and the fourth and seventh episodes of each television program’s season broadcast within a one-year period were watched. It was found that though suspect treatment is portrayed fairly accurately in prime time... Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:02 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/794/the-portrayal-of-the-american-legal-system-in-prime-time-television-crime-dramas http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/789/women-in-tv-broadcast-news-reporters-and-sources-in-hard-news-stories By Mariah Irvin - This study, conducted during a two-week period leading up to the 2012 Presidential Election, analyzed three prime time news broadcasts to determine whether male journalists reported more hard news stories than female journalists throughout a segment of increased political activity and whether male and female sources were used equally in said stories. The results showed that male reporters were assigned more hard news than female reporters, and males were a little more likely to assigned to hard news than soft news. Male sources were used more as experts in hard news by both male and female reporters... Fri, 15 Nov 2013 04:43 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/789/women-in-tv-broadcast-news-reporters-and-sources-in-hard-news-stories http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/788/assessing-network-tv-ad-watches-in-the-2012-presidential-election By Stephanie Petrich - In today’s election atmosphere, Americans are inundated with campaign advertisements during the election cycle. Much research has been done on campaign advertisements, but not much about ad watches. Ad watches are critiques or commentary of political campaign ads, often performed by mass media organizations. This study sought to determine the factors that best explain why media outlets picked up certain political advertisements during the 2012 presidential election. To make this assessment the ad watches of CNN, ABC and FOX News were analyzed. Results revealed that the ad watches by these... Fri, 15 Nov 2013 04:13 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/788/assessing-network-tv-ad-watches-in-the-2012-presidential-election http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/751/in-treatment-the-casting-and-bracketing-of-repulsion-in-the-sopranos By Simonetta Menossi - The Sopranos (1999-2007) opens with its lead character, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), unenthusiastically meeting his therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorrain Bracco) for the first time. He is reluctant to trust a female analyst; nevertheless, he begins a confessional narrative that reveals the extent to which the Mafia boss is willing to tell selected portions of his own personal history, but fails to understand fully their meaning and how they refer back to whom he is. Despite his resistance, the scene conveys the extent to which the Mafia boss does not fully realize and understand his own personal... Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:28 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/751/in-treatment-the-casting-and-bracketing-of-repulsion-in-the-sopranos http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/729/a-modern-portrayal-of-lesbian-motherhood-in-the-l-word By Katherine J. Wolfenden - Showtime's television show The L Word (2004-2009) follows a fictional group of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women living in Los Angeles, including Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals) and Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman), who decide to have a baby together after dating for seven years. Tina first has a miscarriage; she undergoes another insemination with sperm the couple stored at a cryobank, but she does not tell Bette in case she loses another baby. Tina then discovers that Bette has been cheating on her, and the couple breaks up. While single, Tina learns that her second pregnancy attempt was successful... Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:01 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/729/a-modern-portrayal-of-lesbian-motherhood-in-the-l-word http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/724/challenging-stereotypes-in-glee-or-not-exploring-masculinity-and-neoliberal-flexibility By Katherine J. Wolfenden - The show’s Super Bowl special, "The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle,” shows how Glee expands masculinity and then invokes it to enforce the then-modified, but still maintained, system.[8] After she witnesses the football team and the glee club exchange countless sexist and homophobic slurs (Karovsky says of Finn, “Hudson’s a frickin’ girl”; Finn says to Karovsky, “You’re always calling everybody gay, but I never see you with a girlfriend”), Coach Beiste mandates that her players join the New Directions and perform a halftime number with the choir... Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/724/challenging-stereotypes-in-glee-or-not-exploring-masculinity-and-neoliberal-flexibility http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/693/the-role-and-impact-of-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-taking-satire-seriously-on-a-daily-show-basis By Matthew E. Popkin - This paper analyzes the show’s major aspects that have developed over the course of the program’s existence which serve as checks on the democratic process. The paper first looks broadly at the news media, critiquing the networks generally and then focusing on the three major cable news networks. Specific critiques of the roles and responsibilities of the news media follow. Analysis shifts to The Daily Show interviews and the discourse that they foster. The last major section examines the show’s ability to reveal the hypocrisy and lack of transparency of the political process... Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/693/the-role-and-impact-of-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-taking-satire-seriously-on-a-daily-show-basis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/668/good-girls-gone-bad-race-and-gender-in-oxygens-the-bad-girls-club By Elijah Mercer - “Reality television” programs attempt to portray normal people in everyday situations. In recent years, the genre has boomed and essentially changed the landscape of television networks.[1] As reality programming continues to dominate television ratings, it has become increasingly commercialized both domestically and abroad. Meanwhile, many reality shows continue to reinforce traditional race and gender based stereotypes. Oxygen Network’s new hit reality show The Bad Girls Club (2006-present) is a product of this distorted format that supports profit-making and negative stereotypes... Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/668/good-girls-gone-bad-race-and-gender-in-oxygens-the-bad-girls-club http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/633/the-lost-soundtrack-an-analysis By Danielle D. Ayer - This understanding includes the ways in which popular culture and societal structures affect characters both individually and as a group. Continually, this heightened understanding compels viewers to become better viewers by becoming active or more involved in the process. Furthermore, music also acts as a medium that binds all of the characters to each other, and in turn the viewers as well—music and performance are key elements that make up the fabric of popular culture, and our continual understanding and reference to it only makes viewing more active through the process of cultural communication... Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:49 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/633/the-lost-soundtrack-an-analysis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/591/the-word-pocalypse-joss-whedons-dollhouse-and-dystopian-language By Elizabeth Padden - In my linguistic analysis of Dollhouse I will begin by examining four words: Attic, Echo, Active, and Doll, selected for their frequent usage in the series and for their exemplification of the way in which new meanings are associated with words that already have preexisting meanings. Using Hayakawa's definitions of the two categories of word meaning, denotative and connotative, I will deconstruct the preexisting meanings of the selected words and address their relationship to new denotations and connotations associated through context. Literal denotative meanings and associative connotative meanings... Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/591/the-word-pocalypse-joss-whedons-dollhouse-and-dystopian-language http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/570/dexter-democracy-and-nietzsche-puzzling-through-the-deep-end-of-americas-tv-obsession By Maxwell G. Mensinger - Within the milieu of American television, the vigilante serial killer, Dexter, stands alone with one of the largest audiences. Why should a violent antihero, who stalks and kills other serial killers, be so appealing to Americans with a democratic, law-abiding background? Does this suggest a growing lack of confidence in the American justice system? Or does it provide cathartic satisfactions of dark, deep-seated urges muffled by democratic laws? Specifically, what characterizes this disciplined vigilante, and what motivates him to kill? More importantly, do antihero extraordinaires like Dexter... Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/570/dexter-democracy-and-nietzsche-puzzling-through-the-deep-end-of-americas-tv-obsession http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/356/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-bros-an-analysis-of-the-male-homosocial-relationship-on-how-i-met-your-mother By Sujay Kulshrestha - As children, we idolize the relationship of our parents. We watch their love and affection and assume that such relationships are easy to find−that love comes naturally. This naïveté is portrayed on the television sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” On “How I Met Your Mother,” the naïve child is Ted Mosby, who is 28 at the start of the series, and the show follows his struggle through bachelorhood. An older Ted Mosby, in his fifties, narrates the show from the future, telling his two children the story of how he met his wife. Ted grew up idolizing his... Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/356/i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-bros-an-analysis-of-the-male-homosocial-relationship-on-how-i-met-your-mother http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/141/the-vast-wasteland-gets-vaster-the-future-of-television-in-the-online-revolution By Brian Richards - Though Minow would probably maintain his statement in light of the Nielsen ratings for “Dancing With the Stars” or “American Idol,” his moral accusations appear disregarded by his own constituency. Not only did this “wasteland” continue to prosper in bars and living rooms, but it expanded into ever greater frontiers with the development of new technology. Current reports already reveal that the future of TV will not always appear, at least exclusively, on TV. In an already interwoven and interconnected field, television is becoming even more integrated with... Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:32 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/141/the-vast-wasteland-gets-vaster-the-future-of-television-in-the-online-revolution http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/129/exclusion-misrepresentation-and-discrimination-still-prevalent-for-women-in-american-media-and-politics By Tonei Glavinic - Mass media is perhaps the most powerful tool in the world for creating, changing or perpetuating society’s ideas about an issue or group of people. It works both overtly and subconsciously: deciding which issues are important, how to frame those issues, who to show as affected by them, and, increasingly, providing personal commentaries on the matters at hand. Because the majority of media outlets are owned by corporations dominated by white heterosexual men, many minorities are portrayed in ways that perpetuate negative stereotypes – if they are portrayed at all. Even though women... Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:32 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/129/exclusion-misrepresentation-and-discrimination-still-prevalent-for-women-in-american-media-and-politics http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/39/the-great-war-the-similarities-and-differences-of-print-and-television-media By Scott Berghegger - News is more likely to be reported if meets one of the following characterisitics: It concerns elite personalities;  It is negative; It is recent; Or it is surprising (Fiske 96). The story of the Bush Administration’s “regrouping” attempt after a “bad week” is all of these things. The President, after a volley of defeats and scandals in the past week including Harriet Miers’s dismissal, Scooter Libby’s indictment, and the death toll in Iraq passing the 2,000 mark, needs to “regroup” and “excite America,” according, respectively... Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/39/the-great-war-the-similarities-and-differences-of-print-and-television-media